LAST EDITED ON 02-06-15 AT 03:26 PM (EST)

http://tinyurl.com/littlebebad

Macro world: It is earth year 2030AD. The manned space probe Margie (named after the pilot’s dear mother) has landed on Ceres. A robotic reconnaissance probe that orbited the planet 15 years earlier found hints that Helium3 (He3) may be available on the surface. He3 is almost non-existent on earth but is essential for practical fusion based energy production. So it is valued at 10s of millions of dollars a pound in liquid form. More than enough to justify the expense of a venture to prospect it on Ceres. Margie is equipped to process and store a few tons of He3 and return it and her astronauts to earth.

Matt, our intrepid astronaut, is making his first EVA from Margie onto the surface of Ceres.

Micro world: Cerean year 760 million. Evolution has proceeded for all this time on Ceres (3.5 billion earth years) without interruption since shortly after the birth of the solar system and the formation of the dwarf planet. On this level, as microbes, life exists at a much faster pace that it does for larger life forms found in macro environments, such as on Earth. Life and death and the passing of generations occurs a dizzying speed in comparison.

Although Ceres has been beset by collisions with other astral bodies at an even greater frequency than has earth, the Cerean’s frantic micro life speed allowed them to adapt to disasters in time to abate the macro effects. From the initial moment that an asteroid or comet contacts the surface to the time the dust settles, Cereans have always had sufficient time to evolve a perfect defense. Thus they survive, thus they thrive. And they have become very wise, not to mention resilient. It is quite surprising what evolution over 760 million Cerean years will produce.

So, from the moment intrepid Matt’s big toe first touched the Cerean surface, to the moment his heel landed, once again the frantic pace of Cerean evolution kicked in and produced the perfectly devised defense. Up to that point their diminutive size prevented them from conceiving of the possibility of leaving their home world. But their scientists, with their advantage of a millennia of relative time to think about it, finally deduced that this development (i.e., invasion by Margie and Matt) had to have been a foreign intelligence visiting from somewhere non-Cerean. Another few millennia of relative time allowed them to develop a plan and construct the means for the aforementioned perfect defense. We all know that the perfect defense is an offense.

Macro world: Back to earth year 2030. After Matt returns from his sojourn on the surface with the disappointing news that there is no He3 readily available, that there is only the regular kind, Helium 2, and that the venture is a bust, Margie loads up and begins her long slow ion propelled trip back to earth.

With hitchhikers.

Cap2 Patched me